Genocide in international criminal law with reference to Srebrenica – prevention and challenges

In 2025 will be 30 years since the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). In May 2024, the United Nations adopted a resolution to establish 11 July as International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica. The author focuses in this article on the crime of genocide, which is often referred to in the literature as the "crime of crimes" with a special reference to Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e. the Srebrenica genocide. The analysis of this issue is based on the convention concept of genocide arising from the legal construction defined in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948. The most important segments of the text are: examination of the genocide crime through the prism of the general legal and social context, the convention concept of genocide with reference to the misuse of the concept of genocide, as well as to the negation or denial of the crime, the glorification of the persons legally convicted of committing genocide and other war crimes. The genocide committed in Srebrenica in July 1995, where between 7000 and 8000 people were killed, must be a warning to humanity with a clear preventive message that genocide will never and nowhere be repeated, and that the international community will take all necessary actions to provide adequate protection. The essential problem in establishing or proving the existence of genocide is primarily related to the complexity of establishing the specific genocidal intent of the perpetrator as a specific and unique feature of this crime. The crime of genocide is precisely recognisable by specific genocidal intent as the subjective component of this crime, which distinguishes it from other related international crimes. Additionally, the intention of the author is to point out the importance of establishing judicial truth, general prevention, affirmation and promotion of the universal human values, on which the civilised world rest, in order to reconcile, coexist and ensure peace, security, human rights and freedom, the rule of law, the culture of dialogue, humanity and so on. The article also emphasises the inability of the international community to find effective enforcement mechanisms aimed at the timely detection and prevention of risky behaviour that may escalate into a crime. For this reason, the author appeals for strengthening international cooperation in criminal matters and using the full potential of criminal law as a preventive instrument.